A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that instance, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a “mask” or a “reticle,” may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be foiined on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g., including part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g., a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called “steppers,” in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at one time, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the “scanning”-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate.
In order to monitor the lithographic process, parameters of the patterned substrate are measured. Parameters may include, for example, the overlay error between successive layers formed in or on the patterned substrate and critical linewidths of developed photosensitive resist. This measurement may be performed on a product substrate and/or on a dedicated metrology target. There are various techniques for making measurements of the microscopic structures formed in lithographic processes, including the use of scanning electron microscopes and various specialized tools. A fast and non-invasive foim of specialized inspection tool is a scatterometer in which a beam of radiation is directed onto a target on the surface of the substrate and properties of the scattered or reflected beam are measured. By comparing the properties of the beam before and after it has been reflected or scattered by the substrate, the properties of the substrate can be determined. This can be done, for example, by comparing the reflected beam with data stored in a library of known measurements associated with known substrate properties. Two main types of scatterometers are known. Spectroscopic scatterometers direct a broadband radiation beam onto the substrate and measure the spectrum (intensity as a function of wavelength) of the radiation scattered into a particular narrow angular range. Angularly-resolved scatterometers use a monochromatic radiation beam and measure the intensity of the scattered radiation as a function of angle.
In order to better control scanner functionality, a module has been recently devised which automatically drives the system towards a pre-defined baseline approximately each day. This scanner stability module retrieves standard measurements taken from a monitor wafer using a metrology tool. The monitor wafer had been previously exposed using a special reticle containing special scatterometry marks. Using the monitor wafer and that day's measurements (and possibly historical measurement data from previous days), the scanner stability module determines how far the system has drifted from its baseline, and then calculates wafer-level overlay and focus correction sets. The baseline can be defined either directly by the reference layer on the monitor wafer (in this case, the scanner stability module will drive the system towards minimal overlay on the baseline monitor wafers) or indirectly by a combination of the reference layer on the wafers and a target overlay fingerprint (in this case, the scanner stability module will drive the system towards the defined target overlay fingerprint on the monitor wafers). The lithography system then converts these correction sets into specific corrections for each exposure on subsequent production wafers.
Each scanner is controlled by the scanner stability module using a control thread, the contents of which are dependent on the alignment strategy used in exposing the wafers. Where the same alignment strategy is used in exposing the monitor wafers and production wafers, then the action of the scanner stability module will mean that the alignment strategy impact cancels out. However, should different alignment strategies be required for different products on one scanner, then a single control thread cannot normally be used to control that scanner.